Selling House and Organising Viewings

[OutInTheShed]

Chamon_Lee said:

Ever so slightly off topic but how to people work around this. I have no interest in even putting my house of forsake unless it’s for something I really want which could show up tomorrow or in 2 years time so it begs the question what do people do in this situation. Surely you only sell your house when you have something else lined up to step to. For some odd strange reason we have built a culture of sell your own place first then wait and see what you find which can only make the chain longer and more painful.

If you don't want to play the game of being in a chain, you have to either sell first and rent for a while, or find the cash to buy before selling.

A surprising number of people takes those options.

A lot of people who buy and sell simultaneously will look at a few houses to see they can afford something that's worth moving for, then put their house on the market. If they start viewing to buy when theirs starts getting viewings, everything can be near-enough simultaneous.

Equally, I worked with a bloke who took a year from accepting an offer to signing contracts, because chains kept falling apart, and that was in a 'good' market. Both buying and selling prices went up over that year. It was a lot of stress.

[lizardbrain]

A surprisingly low number of houses are sold in a chain, something like 25%.

So it's not the 'culture' to get a chain of houses selling all the same day, it's more of a last resort.

I've never bought or sold in a chain, it's something id go to some lengths to avoid

[Sheepshanks]

Chamon_Lee said:

Regy53 said:

When we went on the market last year (600+k house in northants) we had a few viewings some were ready some were not. I got a bit bored of it all and when one couple wanted to view who were not even on the market i said no, it felt like to much faff with taking the dogs out, getting house ready etc…. Anyway a few days later the estate agent called again asking if they could view, they were ready to go on if required.

I was in a better mood that day so agreed, they viewed, loved it, went on the market and sold in a week and we then agreed a deal and they bought our house. Was a bit of a eye opener

This is the way it should be! Lesson learned for you!

I suppose it depends on the market locally. After we sold FILs, so had our share of the money from that, we thought about moving but the market had really picked up by then and we were getting the brush off from most EAs, annoying but fair enough when houses were selling even faster than hot cakes. Even a couple we did look at, we didn't get any follow-up calls from EAs.

Now it's very much slowed down around here so I expect attitudes would be different, especially if the EA sees a chance to get the potential buyer's house on his books too.

[OutInTheShed]

lizardbrain said:

A surprisingly low number of houses are sold in a chain, something like 25%.

So it's not the 'culture' to get a chain of houses selling all the same day, it's more of a last resort.

I've never bought or sold in a chain, it's something id go to some lengths to avoid

Would you go to the length of renting/being homeless?
A question I'm asking myself at the moment.

Previously we have avoided chains, not sure we can this time.
It wasn't so bad not owning a home when we had BTL and other business property, so were not 'out of the market' wholly.
Idon't want to be out of the market for a long time if buying fails to happen, and I don't want to be paying two lots of council tax etc and might struggle to find the cash to own two houses. Mortgage finance is not so easy when you're closer to retirement age?

[chrisch77]

Chamon_Lee said:

Ever so slightly off topic but how to people work around this. I have no interest in even putting my house of forsake unless it’s for something I really want which could show up tomorrow or in 2 years time so it begs the question what do people do in this situation. Surely you only sell your house when you have something else lined up to step to. For some odd strange reason we have built a culture of sell your own place first then wait and see what you find which can only make the chain longer and more painful.

Agreed, as outlined in my earlier post we were lucky in that we were able to secure ‘the one’ when it came onto the market, helped by a cooler market that when we tried in the previous couple of years and making extra efforts to build a rapport with the seller. The luckily didn’t have an onward purchase target either so we had some time to get ours back on the market with knowledge that it had already had interest quickly previously. We also got over asking price when ours sold as we keenly priced it to get multiple offers.

[soxboy]

It may be worth trying to get viewings arranged in clumps within a short time period. That way people can see who else is viewing, you don’t need to divide between how proceedable people are and it’s not taking up too much of your time.

Anyone who is serious about viewing will view when there is a window, if people aren’t serious then they are filtered out.

When we last sold (2016) I set aside a Saturday for viewings, packed the wife and kids off for the day and then had 11 viewings. From these there were 9 offers in all, we went to best offers and accepted an offer from a FTB who said she was so in love with our house (terraced cottage in village). All good until a house opposite came up that she clearly loved even more!

The EA was going back to the others who viewed when someone who said he was a cash buyer popped up - he had put in an initial offer before but didn’t want to be part of a bidding war.

He said if he put in a firm cash offer (only a couple of grand less than what we’d previously accepted) and didn’t Fanny around with best and finals again, he’d complete in 3 weeks. And he did.

[OutInTheShed]

soxboy said:

It may be worth trying to get viewings arranged in clumps within a short time period. That way people can see who else is viewing, you don’t need to divide between how proceedable people are and it’s not taking up too much of your time.

Anyone who is serious about viewing will view when there is a window, if people aren’t serious then they are filtered out.....

I think this is OK if your trying to flog a BTL to a choice of spivs, but quite unlikely to create the impression your house is a place where people might actually want to live.

[Arrivalist]

OutInTheShed said:

soxboy said:

It may be worth trying to get viewings arranged in clumps within a short time period. That way people can see who else is viewing, you don’t need to divide between how proceedable people are and it’s not taking up too much of your time.

Anyone who is serious about viewing will view when there is a window, if people aren’t serious then they are filtered out.....

I think this is OK if your trying to flog a BTL to a choice of spivs, but quite unlikely to create the impression your house is a place where people might actually want to live.

I’ve been to open days for some very nice properties and it can work very well. To be honest, if you want to sell quickly why not try a range of sales approaches to maximise your chances.

[soxboy]

OutInTheShed said:

soxboy said:

It may be worth trying to get viewings arranged in clumps within a short time period. That way people can see who else is viewing, you don’t need to divide between how proceedable people are and it’s not taking up too much of your time.

Anyone who is serious about viewing will view when there is a window, if people aren’t serious then they are filtered out.....

I think this is OK if your trying to flog a BTL to a choice of spivs, but quite unlikely to create the impression your house is a place where people might actually want to live.

I’ve been in property for 30 years including both residential and commercial sales and this has never been looked down on, nor has it ever been done on BTLs flogged to spivs. Rather an odd response.

It’s a very good way of sorting out real interest from timewasters and also doesn’t take up lots of the vendor’s time. When we sold we had 2 kids under 6 and a dog, I’ll be fked if I tidy up for a one-off viewing for someone who’s a PITA.

If there’s someone genuine who can’t make it then fair enough the agent can filter how strong they are and suggest to the vendor another time, but it stops the ‘ooh I can’t do Saturday because that’s when I visit my sister Gladys’ brigade.

As I said in my post I did it on my own house and it saved a hell of a lot of time. It wasn’t a BTL and nobody who viewed appeared to be a chancer or a spiv. The cash buyer we eventually sold to bought it for his sister-in-law to live in.

[C4ME]

My learned experience has been to take as much care as you can to select the right estate agent for the house you are selling. Been through the process of picking the wrong one and having to switch. In one case, the people who ended up buying a house had tried to view through the original agent and got fobbed off. Another house sold at the end of a chain of 4 and was the easiest of all so I have a more open attitude to chains these days too. It is important to understand the motivation of the buyers involved and how committed they are in addition to cash / mortgage / chain..

Regarding viewings i now take the attitude of leaving it to the agent as to how many and who they want to show the house to. I do not want to be involved in this stage at all. I only want to get involved once an offer is on the table and ultimately it is number and types of firm offers you get that indicate to you what the sales process is going to look like.

[monthou]

Last time we bought we told the agent we were cash buyers and they asked us to provide proof of funds. Which is how I'd expect it to work.

[Arrivalist]

monthou said:

Last time we bought we told the agent we were cash buyers and they asked us to provide proof of funds. Which is how I'd expect it to work.

It should if you have a decent EA involved. I get the feeling that some agents just take the buyers word for it.

[surveyor]

So much rubbish on this thread.

Let the agents do the viewings and don't filter out. You can do this when you get offers.

As an example my parents recently viewed a bungalow. Their house was not on the market. They were going to get bridging finance, but balked when it was fully costed.

Instead they put their house on the market and sold it in 2 weeks. Now deal agreed on the bungalow.

[Bikesalot]

lost in espace said:

I am going to view a house tomorrow in Stotfold, Beds. My wife has already viewed and likes it. Vendor is a widower looking to relocate, possibly move in with her daughter. We are cash buyers in rented which I can get out of any time until February.

She was asking £600k a month ago, now down to £575k which is just over £300/sqft and cheap for the area. No garage, but it is very big.

I am minded to open the offers at £540k negotiate up to £560k. We are in this secure tenancy until February if necessary. There can't be many cash buyers with flexibility to complete out there.

The Stag is not to be dismissed

[ewanjp]

I would 100% accept viewings and (maybe) offers from people who didn't have their house on the market. Our current house we were looking for something fairly specific so although our house was in a state to sell (i.e. we'd shipped our crap into storage so it looked nice!) it wasn't on the market. When we found something we wanted, I had the house on the market and sold (priced to sell) within 10 days. The motivation of the buyer is more important than their immediate position I think - they can demonstrate that motivation by selling their house quickly!

[Sheepshanks]

soxboy said:

OutInTheShed said:

soxboy said:

It may be worth trying to get viewings arranged in clumps within a short time period. That way people can see who else is viewing, you don’t need to divide between how proceedable people are and it’s not taking up too much of your time.

Anyone who is serious about viewing will view when there is a window, if people aren’t serious then they are filtered out.....

I think this is OK if your trying to flog a BTL to a choice of spivs, but quite unlikely to create the impression your house is a place where people might actually want to live.

I’ve been in property for 30 years including both residential and commercial sales and this has never been looked down on, nor has it ever been done on BTLs flogged to spivs. Rather an odd response.

I don't understand that reponse either. EA did the viewings for FILs place and they told us they try and have it so the next viewer is arriving just as the previous one is leaving and so on - obviously to create an impression of a high level of interest. We watched it happening and it worked well.

[thisnameistaken]

Quick update on this. Thanks again for the opinion, experience and advice, it's been interesting to see the opposing views around the value of a true cash buyer and how to structure viewings.

We've accepted a good offer from a first time buyer with a mortgage in principle and proof of deposit today. The initial scramble for viewings has dried up since the first day of listing and we have nothing else booked in so far. It's only day three of listing so it has to be taken in context but it is a reflection on the way the market is currently. As I said in the OP, this is a very popular village location and a house in good condition that will appeal to families, downsizers and first time buyers. There's absolutely no doubt the village has a waiting list of people who want to move in and are waiting for the right house.

Hopefully this works out. Early stages but potentially the type of buyer we hoped for.

In hindsight, if I did this again I'd probably get the EA to do viewings and let them filter people with a view to allowing everyone to view. However, in my position the house sale (EA and solicitor) is funded by the estate's residual money and so the more we spend out of this the less those beneficiaries get at the end of the process. This is the part of my Dad's estate that will go to his grandkids and I know they'll appreciate the extra cash and my Dad certainly would want them to have it. For context, the cheapest EA fee would have been around £6000 whilst doing the viewings ourselves and using an online agent will cost £1000 it's a decent amount of extra money for them for some work on my part. I also like the fact I've met the viewers personally and have direct contact with them. In my experience having good communication with the buyer or vendor in all of my house moves has made it far easier and allowed me to be aware of issues earlier.

Hopefully I'm not too far from the mark but I'll update either way. Thanks again all.